Israel Update: The Syrian Challenge
Peloni: This is a very important and highly recommended video. Mike Doran makes a detailed and emphatic case for the support of Turkey’s moves in Syria as being not only in Turkey’s interests but also in Israel’s interest. He makes the point that Turkey’s eminent and utter victory over the Kurdish YPG forces in northern Syria are not a major victory over a Iranian allied force, but that it would also be nearly impossible to prevent this victory from taking place, and will likely be supported by the incoming Trump administration. In regards to concerns of Erdogan being an Islamist leader, Mike argues that Erdogan’s Islamist nature is only secondary to his pragmatic nature, and that he has basically ceded national security control over Turkey to the establishment which has only Turkey’s national interests in mind. Consequently, he argues that should Israel support Turkey’s conquest over the Kurds, Israel and the Turks could move forward together while turning Syria into a buffer state, but if Israel should show support for the Kurds, the pragmatic nature of the Establishment will see Israel as a threat and act accordingly.
Mike’s arguments, however, seem to ignore Erdogan’s interest in recreating the Ottoman Empire, which will only be encouraged evermore by Turkey’s expansion into Syria. He also downplays the import Islamist nature of Turkey, which now hosts the Islamist Hamas political elites, and helped finance and arm the Islamist forces which toppled Assad’s regime. In fact, the Turkish backed, Islamist rebels in Damascus should be seen as little more than a sword of Damocles wavering overhead of Israel, with the ultimate control emanating from Ankara, leaving Syria to appear far more like a Turkish proxy state than as a buffer state as Mike describes it will be.
